The trend in recent years has been to seek to upgrade high-density hydrocarbonaceous products more and more, which was not the case before. The need to upgrade heavy products has become more pressing since it is anticipated that the demand for light products such as motor fuels will increase at a relatively faster pace than the demand for heavier products, such as fuel oils.
The heaviest portion of heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks consists of a mixture of an oil phase and an asphaltic phase.
The asphaltic phase is the phase which precipitates upon the addition of a hydrocarbon with a low boiling point (for example, propane, butane, pentane, hexane, or heptane), the oil phase being soluble in said hydrocarbon.
The oil phase, that is, the light phase, is economically more worthwhile than the asphaltic phase. It fact, it may be used as a catalytic cracking feedstock that will yield light products. It may also serve as a feedstock for the production of lubricating-oil bases. These products are more valuable than the fuels and bitumens obtained from the asphaltic phase.
As has been pointed out above, heavy hydrocarbon feedstocks contain compounds which have, in addition to hydrogen and carbon atoms, heteroatoms such as oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur as well as metals. Some of these compounds, and particularly those containing metals, are present especially in the asphaltic phase.
Two groups are customarily distinguished among the compounds which make up the asphaltic phase: the resins and the asphaltenes. Both the asphaltenes and the resins have polycyclic aromatic structures. Apart from aromatic rings, thiophene and pyridine rings are present. However, the resins have less-condensed structures than the asphaltenes and lower molecular weights.
The name "asphaltenes" is generally applied to compounds which are precipitated by the addition to the feedstock of a saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon having from 5 to 7 carbon atoms, such as pentane, hexane, or heptane. Under French standard AFNOR NFT 60-115, the asphaltene content of a product thus is determined by precipitation with normal heptane upon boiling.
The resins precipitate at the same time as the asphaltenes when a hydrocarbon with a lower boiling point, for example, propane, is used. In fact, this is a conventional differentiation, and it is obvious that when a given hydrocarbon is employed at a given temperature to treat a feedstock, precipitation of asphaltene-type compounds can be obtained if the hydrocarbon and the temperature are appropriate. If the feedstock freed from the asphaltenes is then treated with the same hydrocarbon at a higher temperature, precipitation of the resins is obtained.
In the well-known deasphalting process, the oil phase and the asphaltic phase are separated by an operation which consists in extracting the oil phase from a hydrocarbon feedstock by means of a substance known to those skilled in the art as a solvent. The solvent is both a solvent for the oil phase and a precipitant for the asphaltic phase. Hereinafter it will be referred to simply as a solvent.
The solvent may be selected from the group consisting of:
saturated or unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons having from 2 to 8 carbon atoms, alone or in admixture;
mixtures of hydrocarbons, known as distillates, with molecular weights close to those of the hydrocarbons having from 2 to 8 carbon atoms; and
mixtures of all of the aforesaid hydrocarbons.
Deasphalting may be carried out in a single stage, in which case an oil phase and an asphaltic phase are obtained, the latter containing both the asphaltenes and the resins. It may also be carried out in two stages, using two different solvents and/or different operating conditions in the two stages. In the two-stage process, the oil phase, the resins and the asphaltenes are obtained separately. (See, for example, French patent application No. 86 06994, filed on May 15, 1986, in the name of the Applicant; and correspond-U.S. patent application Ser. No. 050,912 filed May 15, 1987).
As mentioned above, it is the oil phase that is more worthwhile economically. In a deasphalting process, whether single- or two-stage, it is therefore advisable to endeavor to obtain a maximum yield of the oil phase. Of course, this striving for a maximum oil-phase yield should not be at the expense of the characteristics of the oil phase.